


Chikeze and Cholastica

by 6YearsABrave



Category: Original Work
Genre: Battle, Gen, Merkits, Mermaids, Mermen, Ocean, merfolk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:18:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6766609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6YearsABrave/pseuds/6YearsABrave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two mermaid sisters who grow up on land find themselves in the middle of an epic battle for their people below the waves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chikeze and Cholastica

On the calm coastline of Biloxi, Mississippi, the bright yellow-gold sun slowly descended closer and closer to the horizon, as if it was attempting to hide behind the beachfront condominiums. The waves of the ocean lapped gently against the soft sand of the beach, giving off little glints of gold across the water. Down beneath the surface, roughly three quarters of a mile below and out from the beach in a coral reef, the light was still visible – to a little girl.

She smiled devilishly as she held something up in front of her face, into a ray of green-gold sun. Gazing into it with large, violet eyes, the young mermaid swished her tail back and forth in pleasure. 

It was a precious gem, some kind of emerald, set in a beautiful ring, which her father, the king, had given her the day before for her sixth birthday. 

“Beautiful,” she whispered to herself. “Beautiful as me.” 

SWOOSH! SWISH!

“Aaagh!” The princess cried as two little mermaid sisters with light and dark blue tails surprised her as they splashed past, playing together in the coral beds. They weren’t much older than toddlers, but they sure did know how to have fun.

“Chikeze! Cholastica! Watch where you’re going!” The princess snapped. “You nearly sent me flopping into the coral beds!” 

“Sorry, Arlie,” Chikeze replied in a girlish tone, laughing as she tore down a hill after her sister. 

“Ughh,” Princess Arlidaria sighed as she turned her attention back to her precious ring. “Hey,” she said to herself, glancing around, “Where is it?” 

She swam up and down the area of brightly colored coral beds where she was, but didn’t see anything. “Oh no!” She said to herself.

Then an idea occurred to her. She swam down the hill of coral after the little sisters to ask them if they’d seen it.

“I got you!” Cholastica said to Chikeze, tagging her sister gently on the arm after she caught up to her. “Now you’re it!”

“Hey!” Arlidaria cried out to them. “Little babies!”

“We’re not babies!” Chikeze yelled back.

Arlidaria came closer to them so she wouldn’t have to scream. “Fine. Girls,” she started in an accusing tone, “where’s my beautiful, precious ring? You came by and now it’s all gone.” 

Chikeze and Cholastica looked at each other, puzzled. “We don’t know,” they said together.

“How can you not know?”

“Look around the coral,” Cholastica suggested. 

“I did,” Arlidaria said, getting angry. “And it’s gone. All gone! I think you babies stole it!”

“Stole it?” Cholastica asked. “Why would we steal your ring?”

“It’s mine!” Arlidaria insisted. 

“But we didn’t,” Chikeze said, confused.

“DADDY!!” Arlidaria yelled, tearing off in the opposite direction to find the king. “Those babies stole my beautiful ring and now it’s gone forever!”

“Uh oh,” Chikeze said, turning to her sister. “Now we’re gonna be in trouble.”

“Here,” Cholastica replied, handing her sister a length of anemone weed she pulled from the ocean floor. 

“Good idea,” Chikeze said, taking it. She began to fasten it around their wrists.

As she finished tying the knot, suddenly waves began to drift toward them. As the seconds passed, they became stronger and stronger until the sisters were pulled along them uncontrollably. They heard a deep, loud rumbling sound, and then began to drift up and away from the ocean floor with the current.

Chikeze and Cholastica held onto each other for dear life, even though they were already attached at their wrists. Who knew where they would be swept off to? It didn’t really matter, as long as they were alright and they had each other…

 

The helpless young mermaids thrashed and kicked, swished and swam, until they couldn’t do anything more to stop their tremendous flight. Endlessly, they were tossed and thrown and shaken in the merciless waves. Just when they were beginning to think that it would never end, the water around them suddenly disappeared and the mermaids were thrown back against something hard. 

It was an immensely strange sensation, being out of the water. They found themselves breathing something very dry and transparent. When they finally came to, realizing it was ‘over’, Chikeze and Cholastica each opened their eyes to a shocking sight.

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, and the girls could actually see it. The ocean was there, not far away, waves just starting to settle down as if nothing had happened. They were lying on solid ground side by side against some kind of wood fence in some other world, facing some kind of house. But whose house? And what world?

“Ch – Cholastica?”

“Yeah, Keze?”

“What is this place?”

“I don’t know.”

Chikeze flopped her tail up and down on the wet, sandy ground helplessly. “How are we supposed to move?”

Cholastica tried as well, wriggling her body up and down in a swimming motion, without success. “I don’t know that, either.”

“Oh, Cholastica, how will we ever get back home?”

Cholastica paused. “Maybe we were supposed to come here. But I can’t see why.”

Just then the girls heard something. It was a clear sound in the dawn air – the sound of footsteps. 

“What’s that?” Chikeze asked. 

“I don’t know!”

The girls looked over in apprehension as the fence they were leaning against creaked a few feet away. Breaking open in one place, another creature came in and closed it behind him. 

He was unlike anything Chikeze or Cholastica had ever seen. He was like a merman – but didn’t have a tail. Instead he had two long, thick arm-like limbs that held him up as he moved across the ground. He was covered in some garments made of unfamiliar material. His face was friendly, with an incredulous look on it as he stared at the sisters, lying in his backyard.

His mouth opened for a moment, but the girls didn’t hear anything, and he closed it again. His lips trembled and his eyes wouldn’t move from them. And their eyes wouldn’t move from him. 

“Hi!” Chikeze said in a high-pitched voice. Cholastica looked sharply at her.

The man paused, looking around as if he were looking for someone, and then said, “H-hello.”

“Who are you? Wh- _what_ are you?”

The man’s mouth opened again, but he was once again speechless. Chikeze raised her little eyebrows at him. Then he snapped out of it and said in a strange accent, “I’m Tom…Tom Benjamin. I’m…”

“You’re what?”

Chikeze began to wonder why the man was so shy. Then Cholastica said, “We’re lost.”

Tom seemed to come out of his reverie. “Wow!” He said, a big smile stretching across his face. “You’re…you’re…”

“Mermaids,” Cholastica said as he took a few slow, cautious steps toward them. “Can you help us?”

Tom looked up at the sky for a moment, clasped his hands happily, and looked down at the mermaids again. “Yes!” He said merrily. “Yes! Come in! I…” He paused. “How will you walk?”

“Walk?” Chikeze asked.

“I’m sure we’ll work something out,” Cholastica said confidently. 

The girls held out their hands to the man, officially deciding to trust him since he was more in awe of them than they were of him. He came over to them and picked them up carefully since they were covered in slime and water. Holding onto him, the girls looked over Tom’s shoulders at each other as he carried them into the house.

Setting them on a soft cushion on the floor, he hurried off to find something to dry them. The girls looked around in wonder. It was unlike anything they’d ever seen. 

Tom returned with a couple of towels. “You must be cold,” he said, drying them off.

“Yes,” Cholastica said, rubbing her arms together. “But your home is nice.”

Tom smiled with unrestrained happiness. “I’d always wanted kids,” he said, almost to himself, though the girls heard. “I thought it would never work out.”

Suddenly, Chikeze gasped loudly. “What the-" Tom started, then looked down as he picked up her towel.

Chikeze had legs, just like Tom! Her tail was gone, and since she was dry, now she looked just like one of Tom’s kind.

Cholastica looked at him, staring at her own still-dripping tail. “What are you again?”

“I don’t think I told you,” Tom said incredulously, looking at Chikeze. “I’m a human.”

 

Tom Benjamin was a single lawyer who had lived in Biloxi all his young life of twenty-eight years. He always had a deep appreciation for the ocean, or the whole new world below, as he thought of it. In his spare time before he left for cases in town he would take leisurely walks and clean the coastline. It fascinated him, and because of that fascination Chikeze and Cholastica became his children. 

Because of their real identities, however, Tom couldn’t send the girls to school. As soon as even a single drop of water touched their legs, they would suddenly turn back into what they really were. 

So Chikeze and Cholastica Benjamin lived sheltered childhoods, with the allure of the ocean, their origins, right outside their window. 

 

“Cholastica! Dinner’s ready! Where have you been?” 

Eleven-year-old Cholastica broke from her reverie and looked up from her favorite chair. There was Chikeze, standing over her like she was her mother, tapping her foot. 

“I’m – I’m coming.”

“Well, hurry up, I don’t know what’s keeping you.” She swept herself back into the house, letting the rickety old screen door slam behind her, leaving Cholastica alone again on the front porch. 

She sighed as her gaze returned to the big, blue mass in front of her. The ocean.

How she longed to just walk barefoot out across that soft sand, out to the water’s edge, breathe in that warm, salty breeze one more time, then let the enormous world below swallow her up into the adventure of a lifetime as what she really was. She didn’t remember her merfolk parents much at all; neither did Chikeze. She had fleeting memories of what it was like, but try as she might, she could never remember anything very specific. 

How cool and smooth it would feel to swim in that huge expanse! How liberating!

But then she would think of Tom and how many sacrifices he’d made for her and Chikeze. Always thinking of the consequences of their legs getting wet in public, always considering what was best for them, no matter what the price. Thoughts of undersea adventure, though, never left her mind as she reluctantly got up and went inside to an ordinary human’s dinner.

 

Chikeze and Cholastica grew up into smart, lively, and wonderful girls. So learned had they become in hiding their identities that Tom allowed them to go to the local community college once they became old and smart enough. 

The girls loved being around others their age. Though they could never tell anyone about what they really were, they were happy with their new human friends and their friends were happy with them.

 

After the first spring semester, Chikeze and Cholastica decided to take the summer off from studying and enjoy themselves a bit. Chikeze took this initiative one day when the two were invited to a birthday pool party.

Chikeze was all for it, but Cholastica didn’t approve at first.

“What if one of us gets wet?” Cholastica had asked. “Then what?”

“We won’t, Cholastica, I promise!” Chikeze argued. “Don’t you want to have just a little fun in the sun? It’ll be fine!” Cholastica didn’t agree with her sister’s argument, but still felt they deserved the summer fun. After all, they wouldn’t get in the pool or anything.

“Oh, alright,” she finally said. They both put on long pants and tennis shoes, like they always did when they left the house.

 

“This is some party, eh?” Someone asked.

“Oh, yeah!” Chikeze replied. “I haven’t had this much fun in years!”

“The cake is excellent!” Somebody else said.

It was about halfway through the party, late in the afternoon, when Chikeze glanced across the pool to Cholastica, who was sipping a drink and talking to a friend. _I told her,_ she was thinking to herself when someone poked her arm. 

“Huh?” she asked, spinning around.

It was Mitch, a boy from one of her classes that spring. He’d never been a particularly close friend. “Hey, Chikeze,” he said. “Why haven’t you gone for a swim?” He was dripping wet, and as she noticed this, Chikeze took a couple of steps back. 

“I – I don’t really feel like it,” she said with a sheepish chuckle. “How’s the punch?”

“It’s fine, but I’d really like to go for a swim – with you,” he continued, trying to get closer to Chikeze. She kept backing up, dangerously close to the edge of the pool’s deep end.

She caught herself at the last second. “Not today,” she said quickly, trying to weasel her way past him away from the water’s edge.

“Why not?” Mitch persisted. He blocked her way.

“Just – didn’t plan on it today,” she said desperately. 

But Mitch caught something in Chikeze’s tone. He wrinkled his brow and blocked her way past him. 

“Mitch!” Chikeze said, raising her voice.

“Let’s swim!” Mitch said stubbornly.

“No!” Chikeze said as Mitch pushed her.

It was one fateful push that would change the world. Chikeze fell into the deep end with a giant splash. 

On the other side of the pool, Cholastica’s drink fell to the ground. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized who had fallen into the pool. No one was in the deep end at the time, but there were some people in the shallow end.

As soon as Chikeze hit the water, the splash blended into a shimmering light that suddenly radiated from her entire body like a lit up fountain. People began to notice at once as she slowly sank lower and lower, bubbles rising to the surface, not appearing to come up for air at all. She seemed to shimmer for a moment more, after the splash calmed, and then there, gliding toward the very bottom of the pool, was a creature the college students had only read about and seen in movies.

People around Cholastica gasped and gaped as they peered down into the pool. The people in the shallow end got out immediately. No one could explain what had just happened to Chikeze, except for Cholastica, who stepped to the water’s edge, took a deep breath, and raised her voice:

“Students,” she said in a strong and clear tone to everyone around her, “Don’t be judgmental, and don’t think that anything’s wrong.” She looked down to her sister, who was huddled on the floor of the pool, trying in vain to hide her large, light blue tail. She took another deep breath.

Then she let herself fall into the water.

As she let all the air out of her lungs and descended several feet through shimmering light she called out to Chikeze, “Come on up, sis. Don’t be scared.” The scales of her tail shone in the sun above, like a great azure silhouette.

Chikeze looked with large blue eyes up at her sister, who had intervened for them both, and had stayed strong through it all. Then slowly she began to swim upward. 

“It feels amazing,” Chikeze said quietly. “But we shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cholastica told her. She reached out for her hand as they glided upward to address the humans above. Chikeze took it with a strong grip.

The two mermaids burst from the surface of the pool with a spray and inhaled air again. They looked at each other. Then they looked at all the wide-eyed, dumbfounded faces around the pool, staring. 

After Cholastica said, “Let’s go for a swim!” people began to see their true beauty. 

 

As one could imagine, the media found out about Chikeze and Cholastica fast, and oceanographers and researchers immediately found a way to utilize them for a good cause. The best way for them to find the answers to questions long unanswered about the true nature of life under the sea, in the world below, was to send the sisters back to where they came from and to stay in cognito with the world above.

The experiment was slated for one beautiful, sunny afternoon about a half-mile off the sunny Mississippi coast.

 

“What do I do with this?” Chikeze asked Cholastica, holding the little device on the string around her neck.

“Push the button,” Cholastica explained, “and the humans will then know exactly where you are.”

Tom Benjamin approached the girls. He just smiled at them both, unspeakably proud. The girls smiled back.

They were on a huge research ship made for long voyages, but this was just a one-day drop-off. They examined the surf below with cameras, finding an ideal place to drop the mermaids off so they could get acquainted with the world below. Then they could start the research.

A man wearing a white scientist’s jacket poked his head into the cabin where the Benjamin family was. “It’s time,” he said. 

They went out into the sun and looked out at the ocean all around them. “It’s beautiful,” Chikeze breathed.

“Just wait and find out what’s down there for you,” The man in white said as he surveyed the scene with them. “It hasn’t even gotten the least bit interesting yet. Good luck.” He went off to join the other researchers as he gestured for the girls to have at the water.

Cholastica looked at Chikeze. She smiled.

Then the girls both took long, majestic leaps at the same time off the ship and into the ocean.

The researchers and Tom all crowded along the ship’s edge and watched as two shimmering bodies darted downward into the deep blue abyss. They twirled around each other, like dancing lights, plunging down, up, and to the sides, and as the light from their transformations faded, they both came back up, bursting from the surface, their bright blue tails each glimmering brilliantly in the sun.

The enraptured Tom could only stare, open-mouthed, as his nautical daughters became more familiar with swimming out in the wide open. 

He felt so happy for them, yet so worried at the same time. He knew there were dangerous things in the ocean, yet Chikeze and Cholastica belonged there, somehow. He wondered how he _couldn’t_ have been doing the right thing keeping them protected on land. He wondered if he had been selfish.

But none of that seemed to matter now. They were so happy, because they were indeed _mermaids_ , and now, that’s what they really could be. 

 

“Wow!” Chikeze said. “Look at all these beautiful flowers!” 

She was surveying the ocean floor, covered in coral reefs, as the mermaid sisters glided along like manta rays, their eyes darting every direction, taking it all in. 

Some little fish swam past. They glanced at the mermaids, then kept swimming right along. They seemed to be a bit nervous, and their eyes were wide as they chittered.

“Wonder what’s up with those little guys?” Cholastica said, peering back after them. 

“Haven’t they ever seen merfolk before?” Chikeze wondered aloud. 

“Speaking of merfolk,” Cholastica pointed out, “aren’t there any around here?”

There were signs of intelligent life here and there, even if the sisters were too far removed from the lifestyle to notice. A door hidden here, a bell down there, a window over there. But they were right in that there were no merfolk around at all. 

“Let’s find a place to settle down,” Cholastica suggested. “Take it all in.”

“There’s a good spot,” Chikeze said, pointing to a high outcropping of surf. 

Swimming over they were exposed to an entire region of sea. Relaxing on the bar of soft, sandy sea floor, Chikeze and Cholastica made themselves comfortable as they surveyed the ocean – their birthplace.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Chikeze asked. “Cholastica?”

“Keze,” Cholastica said, amused. “Do you see that?” She pointed out.

Chikeze focused her eyes down to the ocean floor below. “What?”

“It’s like…” Cholastica began, but didn’t know how to describe it. “Look – right down there…no, there!”

“Oh, I see it!” Chikeze said. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” her sister echoed. “It looks like rows and rows of…something,” she mused. “They look too…uniform to be plants.”

“You’re right!” Chikeze said, becoming curious. “Are they merfolk?”

“I’m not so sure,” Cholastica said. She looked at her sister. “You want to go find out?” 

“Yeah,” she agreed, following her sister down to the ocean floor. 

They glided along for a minute before the rows and rows of something suspicious came closer into their view. 

Cholastica gasped when her eyes focused clearly on them.

“Keze!” She sucked in water sharply, grabbing her sister’s arm and pulling her to hide behind some kelp. 

Chikeze flailed for a moment, then regained her balance. “What?”

“Look carefully. I can see it now.” Chikeze’s eyes focused, then widened.

There, below them, not so far away, were rows upon rows of hard, wire cages. And inside the cages were – merfolk! Mermen, mermaids, and merkits of all sizes and colors were thoroughly trapped! 

Before Cholastica could stop her, Chikeze tore off swimming at a breakneck pace toward them.

“Keze!” Cholastica called, but it was no use. She followed.

Chikeze was panting quietly by the time she reached the edge of the cages, holding onto a bar of a door. There a trapped merman gestured to her. 

“Hey,” he whispered, grabbing her arm. The merfolk in the cages nearby tried to get as close as they could.

Chikeze looked up at him. He had short, sandy-colored hair with a green streak in the middle. His tail was very big, fanning out at the end, and was a deep emerald hue. 

“You really should get out of here,” he said.

“What’s going on?” Chikeze asked, ignoring his plea. “Who’s doing this?”

“Who are you? A refugee? From the south? I’ve never seen you before.”

“No time to explain.”

“It’s Queen Arlidaria, of course,” the merman said quickly, and as if Chikeze should have already known. “She’s got us all locked up because she’s just succeeded in taking over her father, who was already King. She now rules all of our land, which she’s renamed Rockbottom, and plans to expand her territory until she rules the entire Gulf and all the merfolk everywhere!” The man tapped her arm, which was still holding onto a bar of his cage. “She’s going to enslave us, I think. You really should-”

But before the merman could finish Chikeze had torn off and away again, back up to a field of kelp. 

Cholastica caught up with her as she grabbed pieces of thin, wiry kelp. “What are you doing?”

“It’s a dictatorship,” Chikeze said, not looking at her sister. “And see if you remember who the princess was when we left.”

Cholastica hung her head. “Oh, no.”

“Arlidaria,” Chikeze confirmed. “She’s taken over.” Looking up at her sister, she said in a distraught voice, “We’re the only ones left who can save our people!”

“Wait, wait,” Cholastica said. “What are you doing?”

“What needs to be done,” Chikeze said gravely, taking a handful of thin, spiny coral and heading back down to the cages.

“Chikeze, wait!”

 

But Chikeze swam faster than her sister, and reached the center of the cages before Cholastica could catch up. As she swam by the imprisoned merfolk they could all see her and wonder at her as she went for the middle – where there was a large hole with a lock. 

Cholastica had just approached her sister when an alarm suddenly shook the ocean floor. “Got it,” Chikeze said with triumph, discarding her makeshift keys. All the cages’ doors were opened at once, and the merfolk began to swarm out. 

“Everyone! That way!” Cholastica shouted at them, but they didn’t seem to hear her over the alarm. Then Cholastica realized she could barely hear herself. _Oh no_ , she thought. 

Then she caught sight of something worse. Merfolk with purple bands around their heads and bodies suddenly swam among the rest of them, trying to round them up again. They roughed up the innocent merfolk, practically treating them like slaves as they drove them around, struggling. Chikeze and Cholastica encouraged them the best they could to fight Arlidaria’s minions off and escape with them. Many succeeded, including an older couple who had taken great interest in the sisters and had been following them around closely since they’d been freed.

 

Chikeze and Cholastica surrounded themselves with merfolk who all wanted to know who they were. They introduced themselves (once they were out of range of the terrible cage alarm) and shared their sentiments about their plight, trying to come up with a plan. 

As some merfolk were expressing their concerns an older merman and mermaid fought their way forward through the throng to see the sisters face to face. Their tails were similar blues to the sisters’, and at first, Chikeze and Cholastica didn’t recognize them.

“You’re Chikeze…and Cholastica?” The merman started without ado.

The sisters gave him their attention. “Yes,” they said together. “We want to help-”

“Oh, girls!” The merman and mermaid made for them, embracing them both in tight, desperate hugs. “You’ve come back!”

“I can’t believe this!” The mermaid said happily. They sounded as if they were about to cry tears of joy – if they weren’t already.

“What’s going…” Cholastica started, but then looked back at the merman who was hugging her. Chikeze did the same, a sense of de ja vu taking over them both. 

“Mom and…Dad!??!” They both cried at the same time.

“Our babies are back!” Their mother said. “We missed you so much!”

“We thought you’d never return,” their father added.

“Oh, my goodness, I never thought it was possible!” Chikeze cried, embracing her mother again.

“I don’t believe it – Dad!” Cholastica thought she was going to cry.

“You must not remember,” he explained to them. “We lost you in a terrible storm that hit so suddenly one day as you were playing in the coral. We thought you were gone forever.”

“But now you’ve come back,” their mother said, her blue eyes glistening. “If anyone can survive that and save us from Arlidaria, it’s you girls.”

“You’re special,” their father said. “And your sudden return means something great and revolutionary, there’s no doubt.”

“Mom, Dad,” Chikeze said uncertainly. “What are we going to do? We’re wanted!”

“Keze,” Cholastica said, “you forget something. We have the walking world on our side.”

“Are you sure you can do this?” their mother asked.

“Of course,” Cholastica answered. “We came down here because the humans wanted us to do research and learn more about the sea. We’ll have to go back up and get help right away. If we and some human divers fight together, we can take back our land and defeat Arlidaria.”

The girls’ parents smiled at each other. “We know you can do it,” their father said. 

“Prepare all the freed merfolk for battle,” Cholastica said. “We’ll be back with reinforcements soon.” And with that, the sisters each hugged their parents again before setting off on a careful route back to the surface.

 

The human authorities were soon alerted as to the merfolk’s terrible dilemma as soon as Chikeze and Cholastica were picked up on the ship and taken ashore. They couldn’t do any real research or learn anything without taking care of Arlidaria first. And Cholastica was right about everything – there would definitely have to go to battle over it. 

As professional divers took advice from the sisters and prepared to go beneath the waves and fight, ominous purple clouds had begun to gather on the horizon over the ocean as the sky darkened. 

 

Chikeze and Cholastica walked into a room in a diving facility near the beach together where the brave men and women were suiting up for battle when they heard a familiar voice.

“No way,” the man said. “I’m totally ready for this.”

“Tom!” Chikeze cried, throwing her arms out to her human father as they burst into the room where he was.

“Chikeze! Cholastica!” he said excitedly, hugging them both. “I was waiting for you to come back!”

“Oh, Tom, what are you doing?”

“I’m going with you,” he replied matter-of-factly. “There’s no way I’d miss this – for anything.” He had on a diver’s suit, and an oxygen tank sat nearby on the floor with his name on it.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Cholastica asked.

“For you girls – I could do anything,” he answered. “Besides, I’m fighting for your people. You’re my family, and that only makes all the sense in the world.”

“Oh, Tom,” Chikeze said quietly, hugging him again, “What if something happens to you?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said confidently. “And if something does happen, I’ll be doing it gladly for you. My mind’s made up.”

“Well, having you there will make us more confident, that’s for sure,” Cholastica said.

 

So that evening, the diver team (including Tom) and the mermaids set out to sea. They were all fully equipped with everything they’d need – oxygen tanks, clear goggles with headlights to see better, and whatever weapon they could each handle best. There were even some guns that were designed for underwater use.

As Chikeze looked out the window of the yacht on their way out her face darkened. The ocean looked like a land of death and misery to her as the wind thrashed and the waves were all in a tumult. Purple lightning flashed eerily out on the horizon, as if it were striking her people down. The clouds were so big.

Cholastica came up behind her. “It’ll be alright,” she said to her sister. 

“What if we lose?” Chikeze asked shakily.

Cholastica was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Then we’ll have done it for our people.”

 

The sisters took a careful route and led the diver team to the refugee merfolk who were going to fight with them. Tom made an effort to stay near the sisters the whole time, as they all marveled at what was around them – although the atmosphere underwater was dark and sinister.

The merfolk and human divers huddled together preparing to go out and face their enemy as horns sounded out from the reef. The water flowed by in cold, unstoppable currents as the battle-ready merfolk and their allies came out from hiding, their faces hard and their bodies tense. It was going to be a long night.

As they swam out to the reef together where Arlidaria and her purple-banded troops were gathered, fully armed and prepared, dolphins, whales, and other fish appeared from their hiding-holes and swam out alongside them. The human divers were amazed – these other intelligent sea-dwellers were on their side and were going to fight with them! 

When they approached, the purple troops came at them and attacked, taking the offensive. They had spears, strange swords, and knives at their disposal which the allies were prepared to deal with. After a few minutes, Cholastica realized that she and her allies outnumbered Arlidaria’s troops, especially along with the other sea creatures, who seemed to be holding their own as the battle progressed. 

The sisters, along with Tom, thanks to their quick reflexes and slimmer bodies, fought off a band of mermen who were quite adept with knives. Many of them swam away, wounded or surrendered. The number of purple troops slowly decreased as the allies fought harder and harder, keeping each other’s backs. 

But as they were overcome more and more Cholastica noticed Arlidaria, still fighting with the best of them, trying to defeat a poor young mermaid with a golden-yellow tail. The young mermaid looked terribly frightened, so Cholastica rushed to help her. 

She came up quickly and deflected a swooping blow from Arlidaria’s purple blade to protect the young mermaid. 

Arlidaria shrieked in anger at seeing Cholastica, immediately recognizing her. “Drrrrrrrr!! Cholastica! I thought you were dead!”

“Oh yeah?” Cholastica yelled back as she countered with her own weapon, “You thought wrong!”

Arlidaria blocked the blow as the young yellow mermaid swam away to safety. The rest of the purple troops were by now no longer a threat, and had spread out and disbanded, accepting defeat, but Arlidaria was too preoccupied with Cholastica to notice. Even if she had noticed, she wouldn’t have cared; now, Cholastica was the main enemy.

But now many of the other merfolk who fought as allies took notice, and headed up to where the two were fighting to help Cholastica. 

Not soon enough. 

As Cholastica reared back to hit Arlidaria in the head the purple mermaid swerved around and swatted Cholastica with her tail mercilessly hard, throwing her off several feet. As she floated there, disoriented, several other allies stopped her and supported her back. Help had arrived for her, and now the others were trying to take care of Arlidaria in a different way – and succeeding. 

She thrashed and screamed, kicked and fought, but there were nearly a dozen merfolk, divers, and other sea creatures gathered around restraining her from all sides. One diver emerged from behind the struggling princess with a long knife raised. 

At that moment Cholastica recovered from her dizzy tumble and realized what was happening. She shot forward from her group of allies, reached out above the others (who only watched it all play out), and grabbed the diver’s wrist before he could let the blade descend onto Arlidaria. 

He looked over at her, but then backed off along with all the others as Cholastica said loudly, _“Stop!”_

Arlidaria’s hands were tied behind her back, and the tie was given to Cholastica. All the fighting was over, it seemed, and everything was finally still in the reef. “Arlidaria,” Cholastica continued, “You can’t do this. These are our people. I think they deserve an apology.” Arlidaria was silent as Cholastica also asked, “Where’s your father? Where’s King Shilocauze?”

Still silence. Arlidaria’s eyes narrowed into slits as she clenched her teeth.

Cholastica looked out at all the merfolk and divers gathered around and asked, “Has anyone seen King Shi-”

While everyone was looking at Cholastica, Arlidaria seized her chance and tore her hands free forcefully, grabbed a nearby sword someone held, and slung it backwards at Cholastica all in one fell swoop. Cholastica only had time to lurch helplessly out of the way once she saw what was coming.

Blood billowed out into the water from the end of her tail as she cried out in pain. 

_“NO!!!”_ A man’s voice cried out from somewhere in the reef. 

Cholastica gritted her teeth in pain as she tried to swim away, but couldn’t. Her helpless blue eyes looked up at Arlidaria sadly, who was raising a sword above her, a savage grin on her face. 

But before the blade could descend she choked, and her eyes bulged.

Tom Benjamin shoved her out of the way, a spear protruding from her back. She let go of the sword, sinking to the ocean floor. 

Tom came up to the wounded Cholastica now surrounded by several other allies including Chikeze and the girls’ parents, all with concerned looks on their faces. “Cholastica,” he said nostalgically, propping her up, “it’s gonna be alright.”

 

Tom was right, because Rockbottom was no more.

The rest of Arlidaria’s troops had no choice but to surrender. All the merfolk and sea creatures gathered around in a meeting of peace in the reef. At the same time, a search commenced for King Shilocauze.

Cholastica had taken a vicious hit to her tail, but it was far from life-threatening. It only ended up leaving a terrible scar near the end, and very soon after the battle ended, she was able to swim again like normal. 

She joined up with Chikeze, her parents, and Tom to join in the search for the lost King of the merfolk. After a few more hours of searching, he was finally found.

He was huddled on the ocean floor beneath a large bunch of bright coral, fatally wounded in the chest and stomach. His blood was lost in the bright colors that surrounded him, so no one knew he was there before, as he had blended into the battle. Chikeze and Cholastica rushed over as he was being told all that had happened. 

The sisters were told that the King was asking for them personally, and they were ushered forward through the tight space. 

The King’s lavender eyes were weary and old. “Girls,” he rasped. “I just want to say I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Cholastica said reassuringly.

“I was wrong to get angered so that day back when you were children,” he went on, laboring to breathe. “I spoiled Arlidaria. I wasn’t a good King and I was an even worse parent.”

“It’s okay, your Majesty,” Chikeze said. “You were a fine King.”

“I’m sorry I let Arlidaria take over,” he whispered. “I loved her so much, I was blind to what was right. I cared more for her than for the rest of my kingdom. Now, everything is going to be right again – thanks to you.” 

“We only wanted what was best for our people,” Cholastica said. “We couldn’t have just gone back to land and left our people alone to her, your Majesty.”

“You did what was right,” he said. “And now, I’m going to do what’s right, if you’ll allow me.”

“Anything, your Majesty,” Chikeze added.

The King pulled a glowing scepter out from behind his back and raised it. It was a beautiful pale purple and shone like a diamond. It was also embellished with gold, silver, emeralds, rubies, pearls, and every other colored jewel that could be found under the sea. 

The girls and all the others watching gasped as he held it out over them. “I pass this throne and scepter on to you, Chikeze and Cholastica,” he said as loudly as he could and as respectfully as could be, despite the terrible pain he was in, “to rule our people from this day forth as the most righteous queens this kingdom has ever had. May you keep a watchful eye on them so as not to allow suffering or strife to come among them, and may peace fill your reign, which will be to the end of your days.” The girls took the scepter, in one hand each, from the King as he laid his tired head back onto the sand. As soon as they touched it, the lavender coloring faded into an amazing sapphire blue, a blend of the hues of each of the sisters’ tails. 

They each gasped at the amazing sign of their new regality. “Now,” King Shilocauze said quietly, with one last sigh, “my work is done…”

“Oh, your Majesty!” Chikeze cried, reaching out and taking his hand. 

He was gone.

 

Chikeze and Cholastica had saved their people, and now it was time for the peace they fought for. 

The ocean was lit up with colorful lights as a festival was held in the new queens’ honor. But it wasn’t just an undersea party for the merfolk: it extended all the way up onto the beach, where humans young and old, including those who had fought in the battle earlier, gathered to celebrate both societies. There was music, dancing, great food, sand sculptures, games, and the chance to swim with merfolk and dolphins. All around, above and below, the world was a place of harmony and celebration – an evening that Chikeze, Cholastica, and Tom Benjamin wouldn’t ever forget. 

He’d promised the girls that he’d visit them all the time – he got himself his own diving gear to keep. Birthdays, holidays, whenever he felt he needed some underwater company Tom would just dive on down. And on very special occasions, the girls would make their way up to the beach and visit their childhood home on land. 

But that special evening was the one that marked everything their new life enjoying the best of both worlds would be. When the sun finally set, after it cast one last golden glow over everything, Tom suited up in his diving gear and plunged into the ocean with Chikeze and Cholastica. 

The stars had just started peeking out as all the merfolk gathered around below the throne of the last King. While toasting to his memory, their new rulers swam forward, along with Tom and their parents, beaming with pride. 

Blue and silver-laced crowns were then brought forth and laid on each mermaid’s head. They rose up higher and higher as they faced their people, every sparkling eye looking up at them. There was room for them both on the throne.


End file.
